All sorts of odds for the upcoming season: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...medium=twitter
Highlights:
To win their division:
Toronto +550 (I would bet that)
Columbus +2000 (lol)
Vancouver EVEN (Pretty good indication of the joke that is the NW)
Hart:
Toews 20/1 (I'd bet the hell out of that)

2007-2008 was the last time 3 NW teams made the playoffs in the same year (and the Canucks didn't). The Canucks (in the 4 years listed above) were 66-22-8 against their own division. You could argue they're just that good, or you could look at the numbers. There will always be times where divisions are weaker/stronger, just happens that the last few years, the Canucks were in one of the weak divisions. When you get to play 18 games against teams that finish in the bottom 10 in the whole league, you're bound to wind up with a few more wins than some other teams who only get 4 or 1 game against those same teams.

There's no denying the Canucks are a good team, I just think they're often one of the overrated teams because of their regular season success (and not translating into postseason success) due to playing in a weak conference the last few seasons. The shortened season should be good for them, though - they tend to hit their stride in the middle of the season, which would be ideal this year.

Any word on players ratifying yet? I thought that was supposed to happen today or some crap in order for the season to start next Saturday? (I also could be very wrong).

The approval process for the union is a 36 hour window since there are a tad more than the 30 folks voting as compared to who voted in the BOG meeting. Voting started yesterday and wraps up Saturday morning at 8am EST at which point the final stuff just needs to be signed and teams can officially start team organized camps. Schedules have been given to the teams to analyze in case they need to make any emergency adjustments. Those should become public early next week or maybe on Sunday.

2007-2008 was the last time 3 NW teams made the playoffs in the same year (and the Canucks didn't). The Canucks (in the 4 years listed above) were 66-22-8 against their own division. You could argue they're just that good, or you could look at the numbers. There will always be times where divisions are weaker/stronger, just happens that the last few years, the Canucks were in one of the weak divisions. When you get to play 18 games against teams that finish in the bottom 10 in the whole league, you're bound to wind up with a few more wins than some other teams who only get 4 or 1 game against those same teams.

There's no denying the Canucks are a good team, I just think they're often one of the overrated teams because of their regular season success (and not translating into postseason success) due to playing in a weak conference the last few seasons. The shortened season should be good for them, though - they tend to hit their stride in the middle of the season, which would be ideal this year.

The North East is gonna suck for a while. Boston is the only good team in the division, Buffalo isn't going to make the playoffs, the Leafs need a goalie, Montreal needs offense as well as defense and they need to get rid of Gionta and Gomez and Ottawa is two or three injured players away from being bottom feeders in the whole conference that is how little depth they have in the organization.

The South East division will be an interesting race, Carolina has depth up front and a Cup winning, Vezina capable goalie, any trades they make in order to make the playoffs this year will be for their blue line, unfortunately they don't have a lot in the system to give up in terms of prospects in order to make a splash for a top 2 defender and a top 4 is going to cost a lot. Winnipeg and Florida probably won't make the playoffs this year.

Congrats to the 8 fools who made the ignore list, your ignorance knows no bounds, bravo!

So looking forward to the Hawks opening their season against the current Stanley Cup Champions! Will be a great game though, not to bet against my Hawks, but I think LA will take it at home with Quick in net.

Scott Gomez is done in Montreal. He isn't even going to be playing for their AHL team. They have told him to stay home and they are going to just eat his entire salary this season until they can buy him out in the summer. Yikes.

Trade market is officially open (well it opened at midnight). Boucher traded from Carolina back to Philly.